CHAPTER 18
Keenan
Holding the map out in front of him, Keenan frowned at the craggy peaks to the west. He couldn’t tell if he should try to go between them or if his goal would be closer if he went around. The useless piece of leather in his hands didn’t have a single path marked out.
“Figured it out yet? We’ll have to turn at some point.”
“Would you like to take a look?” Keenan snapped. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and forced his irritation down. “Sorry. I’m a little on edge.”
“Hard to imagine why.” Mori’s eyes dropped back to the puzzle book. “Two missing companions, a secret quest for the hand of a princess you don’t like—”
“I’m not doing this for the princess!”
“—but excellent company and beautiful spring weather,” Mori continued. He turned another page. “We’re a month or two early to forage for berries as we walk, though.”
Keenan’s hand darted out, but the teenage guard sidestepped the tree without looking up from his book.
“If I’d known you would try to read that while hiking, I never would’ve given it to you,” he grumbled. “Though how you manage is beyond me.”
Mori stayed focused on the open page. “It’s no different than watching for my captain’s attack while I’m sparring with someone else.”
Maybe Keenan should try that then. His fingers brushed the hilt of his sword, but he left it in its sheath. If he attacked, Mori might drop the book to defend himself, and the ground that wasn’t covered in slushy snow was sloppy mud.
Princess Sakura had allowed him to loan it to the guard, but she probably hadn’t expected it to leave the castle walls. He shouldn’t risk damaging it lest she hold him responsible when he returned.
Because he would be returning, little as the princess might like it.
“I have found your friends.” Queen Arisa settled back against her throne with a smug smile. “The guard will be recovered soon, but the young lady isn’t in a very safe place. If you want her location, you’ll bring me the tinderbox by the first day of June.”
Keenan’s jaw tightened. He’d promised to do anything if the queen sent her men to look for Liesl and Oliver. And this was her price.
Mori set his finger on the page and turned it toward Keenan. “Do you know this word? I can’t figure it out.”
It was tempting to simply snatch the book away and stuff it in his bag; Keenan would breathe easier if his young friend kept his eyes on the path.
But Mori, despite his claims of wanting an adventure, was doing Keenan a favor by accompanying him.
Keenan didn’t want him to change his mind and go back.
Leaning over, he examined the word that had Mori stumped. “Neighbor.” His eyebrows twitched toward each other. “You didn’t know that one?”
The boy shrugged as he returned his focus to the puzzle.
“My family isn’t wealthy or important. When I made the guard, they taught me enough to decipher the guard schedules.
I taught myself the rest from the odd opportunity to see other writing.
” His eyes darted over to Keenan. “I’m surprised that you know.
Is it true, what they’re saying? Are you actually a prince or nobility? ”
“No,” Keenan groaned, letting his head drop back. “I’m a simple weapon-smith. I was born in a poor district of Hartford, and I live in the front room of my master’s house.”
Mori lowered the book, one of his fingers stuffed between the pages to hold his place.
“But you can read,” he said, awe in his voice.
“Anything, not just the basics. And you have an expensive sword, and the queen put you in a suite for royal visitors and invited you to eat with her and the princess.”
Keenan shifted uncomfortably. “Her Majesty appears to be suffering under the delusion that I’m a prince. But I made this sword, and I only own it because my late master’s wife gave me an early birthday present.”
“That doesn’t explain your ability to—”
“To read?” Keenan finished. He tilted his head to the side as he watched the young guard. “Anyone in Daraigh can learn if they wish. But I understand it might not be so in Ryuni?”
Mori gave him a small smile. “Don’t you think I would have if I could?”
“I thought it was a trial,” Keenan replied with a forced laugh. “My eight-year-old self would have been thrilled to skip lessons.”
The teenager chuckled a little in commiseration. “You do seem like the active type.”
“And you aren’t?” Keenan asked, raising an eyebrow. “You’re in the guard.”
Shrugging, Mori replied, “Not many options for a young man from a poor family. Training isn’t my favorite activity, but it’s a better job than most I could have had. I was fortunate to make the cut.”
“What would you have done if you had the choice?”
“Never gave it much thought.” Mori looked up to the right. “What jobs involve puzzles?”
“No idea.” The ground squelched under Keenan’s boots as they stepped out of the trees. “I’d always planned to join the guard before Master Elias took me on as an apprentice.”
Thoughts of afternoons spent at a table with an open schoolbook, pounding a piece of metal without making a dent, or hiding from Geoffrey filled his mind.
But they were balanced by memories of Master Elias wrapping an arm around his shoulders, his delight when he embellished his first weapon, and his pride when Master Elias let him help set the pricing.
Working with his foster father had once been his life, but it had been weeks since he’d stood at the forge and crafted a weapon.
His hands itched to hold a hammer and a pair of tongs, to create something.
To bring a bit of beauty into the world instead of running about the countryside to satisfy the whims of one royal or another.
As the frustration mounted, he once again thrust it away. No one had asked him to accompany Liesl to Ryuni. And he’d been correct to believe that she needed additional protection.
If only he had been better suited to provide it.
The excited yipping of a fox drew Keenan from his despondent thoughts. It scurried up to him, sniffing at his legs before yipping again and sprinting back the way it had come.
“Odd behavior for a fox,” he mused, watching the spot where it had disappeared. “I would have expected a fox to steer clear of us, not come say hello.”
Mori glanced up from his book. “It was tame.” His eyes returned to the current puzzle as he added, “I thought you said this didn’t have to do with the princess?”
“The princess?” Keenan let his head fall back with a groan. Of course. The trained fox that she had loaned to the guards to find Liesl.
“Two minutes,” Mori said in a speculative tone.
“What’s that?”
“How long we have until she catches up,” the guard casually replied. “My guess is two minutes. What’s yours?”
“I wish it were never,” Keenan muttered darkly. Princess Sakura had been quite clear about wanting him to leave. Why in the heavens would she chase him down now?
About two minutes later, a faint whinny drew his attention back to the edge of the meadow. The little fox darted out of the trees with three horses trotting behind it.
“Do you think it’s too late to make a run for it?” he murmured to his companion.
Instead of rejecting the idea, Mori looked at their pursuers before scanning the terrain around them.
“Running would imply some sort of guilt, but if you want to avoid Princess Sakura that badly, we might be able to scramble up that ledge. The horses couldn’t follow, and if we make for the creek over there, we can walk along it for a while so Bunta can’t pick up our scent again. ”
Keenan stared at him. “I wasn’t actually serious. I may not want to see her, but running from the princess seems like a bad idea.”
“Good,” Mori said calmly as he stowed the book in his satchel. “Because we never would have made it.”
“Then why did you suggest it?”
The boy shrugged. “You asked. And I’ve always wanted to see if that would really work.”
Keenan shook his head. He was tempted to walk faster simply to annoy her, but she was royalty and he was in her kingdom. It wouldn’t be very smart.
So instead, he slowed his pace, even though he kept moving.
When they were close enough that he could hear the soft thud of the horses’ hooves on the ground behind him, he stopped and faced her. Princess Sakura watched him with a cool expression.
“Your Highness.” Molding his face into the calm one he used with customers, Keenan bent forward in a shallow bow. “Can I help you with something?”
She pulled back on the reins, tugging her horse to the side so that she hovered above him. “You left very suddenly.”
Keenan lifted an eyebrow. “Wasn’t that what you wanted?”
“I—”
Her eyes scanned him, from the top of his head to the soles of his mud-splattered boots. But instead of her usual disdainful look, a tiny smile played around the right side of her mouth. She beckoned to him.
Keenan didn’t move. What did she expect him to do?
“I wish to dismount,” she explained with a hint of impatience. “Come help me.”
On her other side, Kasumi watched with undisguised interest. Behind her, a guard with short black hair and a fresh scar across the left side of his forehead stared straight ahead. One of his eyebrows twitched up as Princess Sakura huffed.
“Did you hear me, weapon-smith?” she demanded. “Help me dismount.”
Pulling his eyes from the guard, Keenan dismissed the strange sense of familiarity and took a step closer to the princess’s horse. He lifted his hands, unsure what to do with them. Horses didn’t often pass through the market.
“On my waist.” Princess Sakura pursed her lips as she reached for his shoulders. “You’re lifting me down.”
“Of course, Your Highness.” His voice carried the hint of a sneer, but he couldn’t completely hold it in. He wasn’t a fool simply because he didn’t know how to do something.
She was heavier than he’d expected. He set her roughly on the ground, eager to be away from her and not caring if she deserved better. She was the one who’d left her comfortable castle.
“Oof!” The princess stumbled forward, her hands flying off his shoulders. As Keenan instinctively moved to steady her, her hands linked behind his neck. She swayed into his chest, smiling up at him with those pretty black eyes.
The fabric of her dress was smooth under his hands. His fingers started to slide across it, as caught by the sensation of the unexpected embrace as his eyes were by her gaze.
But then his brain caught up, and he firmly pushed her back.
“Let’s not start that game again.” He detached her hands from his neck and flung them away. “I don’t know why you think I’ll believe it.”
The princess looked startled, but then she softened her face. He’d seen a similar expression on the neighbor’s puppy when it wanted a treat. “What changed? You were much nicer a week ago.”
“That was before I got to know you,” he grumbled. Taking a step back, he set his right hand on the pommel of his sword to create a barrier between them. His eyes darted up to the guard she’d brought, hoping the man realized it wasn’t a threatening move.
Keenan wrinkled his nose. Had he encountered this guard during his sparring session? Was that why he felt he should recognize him?
Folding her hands at her waist, Princess Sakura lifted her chin in the air. “And what precisely do you mean by that?”
“Perhaps you should check the disdainful way you asked that,” Keenan retorted, his attention drawn back to her. “Maybe then you’d understand why—” He cut himself off. He really needed to stop speaking to the princess so plainly.
Her nostrils flared. “Bunta, bite him.”
Keenan’s eyes shot to the fox, but before he could decide how to react, a deeper voice countermanded, “Bunta, sit.”
The fox sat. Keenan’s jaw dropped as he stared at the mounted guard. Hadn’t the man’s eyes been slanted like Princess Sakura’s and Mori’s a few moments before?
“Oliver?” Keenan exclaimed. He looked back at the princess, who was watching her fox with a furrowed brow. “You followed me to bring me Oliver?”
“Oh…yes.” She glanced at the guard, then fixed her eyes on Keenan. “Yes, I did. And to help you.”
“I brought myself.” The guard’s stern but quiet voice cut across their conversation. “Keenan, may I speak to you for a moment?”
The princess pressed her lips together, but she didn’t move to stop them as Oliver dismounted and led Keenan away.
“If I’d known Queen Arisa’s men would bring you back so soon, I would have insisted she let me wait,” Keenan said in a low voice. “I had no idea you were so close.”
“That’s not my concern.” The older guard’s dark eyes darted around the meadow. “I freed myself while the queen’s men had the thugs distracted. Then I borrowed a horse and tailed them back to the castle.”
Keenan’s forehead wrinkled. “Why not simply return with them?”
“Do you trust the queen?” Oliver asked seriously.
He resisted the urge to look over his shoulder at the princess.
“The glen where the bandits had their hideout wasn’t easy to get to,” Oliver continued when Keenan didn’t answer. “But I saw the scouts only a few days after I arrived. And they didn’t look surprised to see me.”
“You think they knew you were there?”
“Let’s just say it made me uneasy. And the rescue wasn’t as convincing as it should have been.” Oliver’s eyes finally settled on him. “I don’t see Liesl with you. What happened after you left?”
“We were separated when the bandits attacked again later.” Keenan set a hand on the pommel of his sword, gripping it tightly to contain his frustration. “I stumbled into the winter castle and begged the queen to help me. That’s why her men were looking for you.”
“But what about Liesl? From what I’ve heard, you’re not searching for her.”
“The queen already found her.” Shrugging uneasily, Keenan continued, “But she refuses to tell me where Miss Liesl is until I retrieve some old tinderbox for her. Though why she needs a special one is beyond me.”
“A tinderbox?” Oliver echoed. His eyebrows twitched toward each other. “Sending you after a…surely it can’t be…” he murmured to himself.
“What?”
Oliver blinked slowly, a chain of thoughts Keenan couldn’t read flitting through his eyes. “You’re sure the queen knows where Liesl is?”
“She knew where you were,” Keenan pointed out. Possibly before Keenan asked her to look.
“And she knows where the tinderbox is.” The words came out as a mutter again. “Perhaps that’s why I was needed.”
Tugging on his horse’s bridle, the guard marched back to the others. “She’ll take care of her leverage,” he stated calmly. “Let’s fetch a tinderbox.”